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A snifter of finest malt . . . from Paris?

Absinthe was outlawed in Paris on the eve of the First World War and only legalised again in 1988Adam Berry/Getty Images

Paris may have fashion, food and philosophy, but it lacks an ingredient essential to any civilised lifestyle: whisky.

Two upmarket grocers, however, hope to put matters straight after obtaining permission to open the first distillery in the city for more than a century. Nicolas and Sébastien Julhés say they are unlikely to knock Scottish and Irish producers off their perch, but are confident that they can compete ,with a whisky of Parisian refinement.

They obtained their licence after a four-year battle with French civil servants who feared that they would turn Paris into a prewar Chicago.

The distillation of alcohol was banned in Paris on the eve of the First World War amid concerns that the French army could be undermined by alcoholism. Absinthe, the…